Page 21 of Sinful Pride
Zachariel sighed and picked up his drink, a viciously green concoction prepared by Raphael, and took a sip, blinking a few times when he felt how potent the potion was—strong enough to affect even Archangels and Archdemons, I made sure of that.
“Now, who’s next? Zachariel, how about you take it away?”
“Sure. But first, you should take a seat.” I moved to plop down next to Zachariel, but he stopped me and smiled sweetly. “Know your place, darling.”
I looked at the other couples. Aurelius was lounging in Abaddon’s lap. Michael sat primly next to Lucifer. The club owners were cuddling each other.
No way. No fucking way did Zachariel really expect me to be the only sub kneeling at their dom’s feet?
“Come on, I’m getting bored here!” Beelzebub booed.
I gritted my teeth and fell down, sitting with my back to the couch next to Zachariel’s legs. That was as much as I was willing to do; I needed at least a few rounds of drinks to kneel in front of everyone. Zachariel let it go and started speaking.
“Never have I ever worn a corset.”
“Your loss,” Aurelius snorted, raising his drink, as did Nathaniel, Anael, and all the Archangels and Archdemons.
Huh, it seemed I was in a minority. It made sense for the long-lived beings to try everything at least once, especially considering the period of male fashion where corsets were an expected part of the wardrobe.
Going clockwise, the next person was Tirael, my very own work slave, so I nodded at him to continue. The poor angel looked frustrated, but that was his baseline attitude, so I knew we only had to wait him out.
“Never have I ever pranked anyone,” he finally said meekly.
Everyone took a swig.
“Oh, you sweet summer child,” Aurelius said, sounding almost as if he was giving condolences.
I was pretty sure the flashy angel would not leave that injustice alone for long, so I absolutely expected Tirael to be drawn into a prank war soon.
“Pranks make life much more interesting,” Lucifer grinned, getting a dark stare from Raphael
“I still haven’t forgiven you for that glitter bomb.”
Lucifer’s smile widened.
“It was edible glitter. Don’t even try to tell me you and your army of boytoys didn’t enjoy getting it off you.”
“Never have I ever killed anyone,” Kreshadon cut in, not letting the situation deteriorate and successfully gaining everyone’s attention. Including his partner’s.
“Huh? Didn’t you?”
“Never have I ever killed anyone with my own hands,” he corrected with a shrug.
With the company including beings thousands of years old, only a few people didn’t drink, notably Jaheel, Zachariel, Aurelius, and me.
Was it normal to feel ashamed that I had killed no one? Sure. Sometimes I did use violence to solve my problems as I wasn’t above socking someone in the face if they pissed me off enough, but I had never really offed or even seriously injured anyone. Everyone who had their hands clean was an Ascended, and, even among those, Serena and Anael took a drink. Sweet, shy Serena had killed someone! But out of the angels born by God’s power, later fallen or not, I was the only one who had not killed. A demon with hands not stained with blood.
It was fucking bizarre.
I caught Zachariel’s eye, saw the flash of concern on his face. It had to be a response to the unconscious expression I had been making. Silently, I shifted, kneeling at his feet after all. Fuck other people; what they thought about me wasn’t important. The only opinion I cared about was Zachariel’s. With his naïve optimism and penchant for trying to make the world a better place, me not having a hit list probably made Zachariel like me even more.
I straightened up and barked: “Next!”
Nathaniel smiled innocently.
“Never have I ever had Raphael shout at me for neglecting my health.”
Half of the room looked instantly cowed. They took their sips while avoiding the healer’s eyes.